New Toronto-based food delivery app for homemade meals secures $17M

Homemade meals offered for food delivery on Cookin, a Toronto-based app (Supplied).

A new Toronto-based company just received $17-million in funding to expand the bridge they’ve built between home-cooked meals and food delivery apps.

Launched in October, Cookin connects chefs crafting homemade meals to hungry people seeking a fresh food delivery option, beyond offerings on UberEats and DoorDash.

The seed of the business began with a phone call a couple years ago between two high school pals, Morley Ivers and Michael Baruch. Their conversation naturally gravitated to a hot topic that frequently entered discussions at the onset of the pandemic – polarization.

“We both came to the conclusion that food has this unique ability to bring us together,” Ivers said. “We have this incredible way to unite people with food, which is our ultimate vision.”

So far, the app has united thousands of people hunting for home-cooked meals with 80 culinary professionals in Toronto. A Byblos chef who cooks Middle Eastern-inspired food with Caribbean flavours, and the founder of Cali Love who makes southern eats as a way of returning to his North Carolina roots, are among the chefs on the app.

They are also in the process of sifting through more than 2,000 applications from chefs keen to join, Baruch said. These culinary professionals create their own menus and set their own prices, while Cookin operates as a middleman that connects home-cooks to households. Chefs keep 80 per cent of the revenue generated.

When the founders first sought venture capital funding, Ivers said the interest they received was immediate and vibrant. “We went out and started doing partner meetings with V.C. firms on a Monday and had multiple verbal offers that night,” he said.

With the new funding secured, Cookin has its sights set on expanding in Ontario, beyond Toronto, along with venturing south of the border to Dallas and Miami. Moving forward, the team is aiming to have their app span 17 American cities by 2025.